‘UnReal’ Casts Black Bachelor Character for Season 2 of Lifetime Series

Following the announcement last week that Lifetime’s “UnReal” would center the second season around a black Bachelor-type, Variety has confirmed B.J. Britt has landed the coveted role.

The “Agents of SHIELD” and “Being Mary Jane” star will play Darius Hill, “Everlasting’s” first back suitor. (“Everlasting” is “UnReal’s” fictional “Bachelor”-type reality dating show.)

Darius is described as a drop-dead gorgeous professional quarterback with a million-dollar smile, sweetness and swagger. With him being cast, Quinn (Constance Zimmer) and Rachel (Shiri Appleby) land a huge win, being the first African-American on the show. Hoping to find his way out of a PR scandal, Darius has no idea that the ride he’s about to take on ‘Everlasting’ will change his life forever.

“UnReal,” a parody on reality dating shows, much like “The Bachelor,” is striking a chord by casting a black Bachelor, given the heat on the real-life ABC show, which has never cast a lead of color throughout its 20 seasons of “Bachelor” and 11 seasons of “Bachelorette,” other than the Latino Juan Pablo Galavis. Currently in its 20th season of the flagship show, “The Bachelor” is Ben Higgins, a white 20-something man from Colorado.

However, just a few days ago at the Television Critics Association press tour in Pasadena, Calif., ABC president Paul Lee teased that the next season of “Bachelorette” will cast a black leading lady. “We’re doing a whole lot of tweaks,” he said. “We have the farm team, right, which allows us to then pick the next one. But I’d be very surprised if ‘The Bachelorette’ in the summer isn’t diverse. I think that’s likely … The tweaks that [creator] Mike Fleiss has put in place will get us where we want to go.”

Before Lee made his comments at the press tour, the “UnReal” producers revealed that they would be casting a black lead. The first season of “UnReal” starred Freddie Stroma, who played the white, British suitor. The critically-acclaimed dark comedy famously jabs reality dating shows, unveiling corrupt behind-the-scenes practices, so the casting of a black lead comes as no surprise for the envelope-pushing show, showing no signs of slowing down from making fun of the television genre.